Read Cracked Dagger, Book One of Allies and Adversaries Page 28

Meta, or meta-sentient: brought back from the planet Enq, Iq’s dimensional twin, that the Rell occupied as a result of the Great Compromise. Little was done with them after the Rell abandoned them on Novan, as the Novans treated them more as expensive toys, until plans were made for construction of the AG platforms. Then great research went into developing their reasoning and intelligence, and in developing the thousands of models of meta to perform all varieties of tasks. Only within the last millennium did research progress into fashioning them to be more ‘souman,’ with great leaps in nanotechnology facilitating the development of artificial skin, mucous membranes, and rudimentary emotions.